Ecology

  • Why ecology? The photosynthetic and respiratory processes drive continuous exchanges of energy and matter that bind organisms and their environment into a single interacting system, i.e., an “ecosystem.” Traditionally, the tools for analyzing the aggregate metabolism of terrestrial ecosystems have come from fields that have their origins in local analyses, like agronomy, forestry, soil science, hydrology, and meteorology. Looking to the future, the expansion of space-based observing platforms and surface-based observing networks is opening up all kinds of new possibilities for studying and simulating the “breathing” of terrestrial ecosystems up to the global extent.

  • What’s in this section? In the Ecology section, you’ll find a collection of materials that I’ve collated to provide an introduction to ecosystem ecology, a summary of the long-term ecosystem experiments that got me hooked on the ecosystem concept, and an overview of my current work in this area which is supported by the NASA New (Early Career) Investigator Program.

  • How is this section organized? These materials are organized in four pages.

    • You are here in Introduction, which introduces the ecosystem concept;

    • Looking back describes the long-term warming experiments that got me hooked on the ecosystem concept;

    • Looking ahead describes my current NASA NIP project and how it leverages the ecosystem concept; and

    • Synthesis activities describes the second Solar-induced Fluorescence Model Intercomparison Project.

  • Getting started: The drop-down menu below has answers to some of the questions I most frequently get asked about the ecosystem concept and ecosystem ecology as a field.

  • This term entered the scientific literature through Arthur Tansley’s writing in 1935:

    “Though the organisms may claim our primary interest, fundamentally we cannot separate them from their special environment, with which they form one physical system. It is the systems so formed which, from the point of view of the ecologist, are the basic units of nature on the face of the earth. [...] These ecosystems, as we may call them, are of the most various kinds and sizes…”

    [Ecology 16: 284-307].

  • Ecosystems can be defined across a huge range of spatial and temporal scales, and this is both powerful and challenging. As Bill Reiners wrote in 1986,

    “The ecosystem concept is dimensionless. Ecosystems can range from a rotting acorn to the biosphere. For the most part this characteristic is a positive attribute, lending generality to the properties of ecosystems at all scales. The enormous range of possible scales can lead to ambiguity and confusion, however, if scales are not clearly recognized and defined in designing research...”

    [American Naturalist 127: 59-73].

  • A few of my favorites, sampling different parts of the genre, from youngest to oldest:

    W. H. Schlesinger and E. Bernhardt. 2020. Biogeochemistry: An analysis of global change, 4th Ed. Academic Press.

    R. Monson and D. Baldocchi. 2014. Terrestrial Biosphere-Atmosphere Fluxes, 1st Ed. Cambridge University Press.

    J. Monteith and M. Unsworth. 2013. Principles of Environmental Physics: Plants, Animals, and the Atmosphere, 4th Ed. Academic Press.

    F. S. Chapin, P. A. Matson, P. M. Vitousek. 2011. Principles of Terrestrial Ecosystem Ecology, 2nd Ed. Springer Nature.

    R. W. Sterner and J. J. Elser. 2002. Ecological stoichiometry: The biology of elements from molecules to the biosphere. Princeton Univ. Press.

    J. D. Aber and J. M. Melillo. 2001. Terrestrial Ecosystems, 2nd Ed. Harcourt Academic Press.

    G. S. Campbell and J. M. Norman. 1998. An Introduction to Environmental Biophysics, 2nd Ed. Springer.

  • Ask for one! Ecosystem ecology should be part of the core curriculum at every college and university.

    If that doesn’t work, consider enrolling in the Marine Biological Laboratory’s awesome program, Semester in Environmental Science.